Instapot Pressure Cooker Review

This Instant Pot Might Be The Last Kitchen Appliance You'll Ever Need To Buy

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After a long day at work, it can be tough to motivate yourself to get in the kitchen to cook yourself a dinner. And it's hard to say no to a delicious pizza pie delivered right to your doorstep. But there are a dozen reasons why you're better off cooking for yourself. It's cheaper, it's healthier, and in some instances it's even faster. This is where the Instant Pot comes in — the friendly kitchen gadget that can do pretty much everything you ask it to do, and only in a matter of minutes.

The Instant Pot is a pressure cooker with a twist — what traditionally is accomplished with a conventional pressure cooker on top of the stove top with questionable safety measures and variable results, is now as easy as using a microwave. The electric stand-alone appliance is designed to be incredibly easy to use, deliver great results and at a fraction of the time. Think of it as a slow cooker on crack — a set-it-and-forget-it, one-stop-shop appliance that can do everything a slow cooker, a rice cooker and a pressure cooker can do, combined in one.

Who It's For

Best For: The home chef, with limited time and kitchen space at his disposal.

While slow cookers can be an excellent tool for the home cooking enthusiast with limited time, having to work around a schedule with a block of six to eight hours of cooking time can become a real chore. The Instant Pot will cut cooking times down to less than an hour — in some instances, just a couple of minutes (of course, in some instances it will take longer as well) — and will deliver the results just when you are ready to eat.

The Instant Pot will also free up a lot of counter space: it will make a rice cooker, slow cooker, stovetop pressure cooker and even a basic sauté pan, redundant.

Why We Love It

The Instant Pot revolutionizes the cooking experience in the following ways:

Time: Pressure cookers are loved not only for the amazing food they can make, they speed up the process of cooking considerably. What would take a slow cooker eight hours can be done within an hour or two with the Instant Pot.

Ease of use: As long as you follow the fairly basic user manual instructions, the Instant Pot is extremely easy to use. It won't pressurize until the lid is perfectly seated, the labelled program buttons on the front couldn't be more clear, and the included recipes booklet makes using the Instant Pot a breeze. The fact that it is fully programmable and plugs into a standard socket means that you can press a button, walk away and get on with your life while its doing its thing.

Counter space: The Instant Pot is not only able to cook the best meal you've ever made, it also has a tiny footprint on your kitchen counter. Counter space is very valuable and having a ton of appliances cluttering it up is never helpful. The Instant Pot is about the size of a large cooking pot and doesn't even require a spot on the stove. Just plug it in and go.

A swiss-army knife of an appliance: The Instant Pot can take care of almost everything during the cooking process. Press the Sauté button to sear your meat, switch to the Stew setting, add liquid and rice, pressurize and wait 30 minutes. The 7-in-1 model is even able to make yogurt by maintaining the exact temperature required for yogurt bacteria to cultivate.

Easy to clean: Remove the included stainless steel pot insert and stick it in the dishwasher. The inside of the lid and the sealing ring will need a quick rinse with some soapy water; it only takes a couple of minutes to clean up.

Why They Love It

thekitchn.com review of the Instant Pot (IP-DUO60) reads: "The more I cooked with it, the more comfortable I was with using it to cook different meals. The more I cooked with Instant Pot, it felt easier and easier to use, and I discovered more ways it could save me time in the kitchen on a regular basis."

BuzzFeed's Rachel Christensen wrote in their review: "I know I’ve only made a handful of things — but the food has cooked perfectly and quickly every. single. time. Maybe it’s not a miracle product, but for me, that’s good enough reason to get it."

Bloomberg.com's review also speaks very highly of it: "A cheffy gadget, the Instant Pot is not. But in the case of those busy home cooks who want to be able, finally, to put certain types of hot, complete, and actually flavorful meals on the table in minutes, I’d ultimately have to concur with my new friends on Facebook: This is a magical pot."

What's Included

In the box, you'll find the stainless steel pot insert, the machine itself, the lid (along with the removable silicone liner), a user manual, and a booklet of recipes.

The Drawbacks

Considering the impressive array of advantages the Instant Pot has over other electric kitchen appliances, there are very few downsides. But it can't do everything.

First of all, while advertising the fact that it can make pulled pork in a quick thirty minutes, the time it takes to come up to pressure is often not included — a process that can easily add 10 to 15 minutes to your cooking time.

While it does feature a "Sauté" feature to sear meats before cooking, it won't replace a cast iron skillet on top of a stovetop, due to its limited power output.

Some users have reported that their Instant Pot has lost the ability to come up to pressure — mostly due to faulty or worn gaskets. But considering the overwhelmingly positive reviews, this seems to be an issue limited to only a handful of users.

Meet The Competition

Cuisinart CPC-600

The Cuisinart CPC-600 features the same 1,000 watt performance of the Instant Pot and a lot of familiar settings and program modes. It also costs almost $20 less.$73.99 at Amazon.com

Aroma Digital Rice Cooker And Steamer

While the Aroma isn't technically a pressure cooker, it will only cost you a fraction of the price. It'll cook rice, vegetables and stews to perfection.$31.47 at Amazon.com

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